Surfing USSR

Greg Malcolms’ excellent kletzmer surf guitar 3-piece. Featuring Malcolmg on guitar, the odd vocal warble, floor guitar and a huge beavy of toys (he prides himself on being able to put on a show for under $5 from the Warehouse!), along with local heavy-duty muso’s Matt Gibb (who plays with several jazz groups) on drums, and Marc Howe (a music tutor, and a player in the Christchurch music scene since his teens originally with the C) on bass.

They put on a pretty damn good show, with all sorts of tricks and whatnot to spice up their bizarre homages to bond films, beatles songs and ‘traditional hungarian folk songs’ (which often turn out to be Iron Maiden covers..). the album is a pretty good reflection of their live sound, taking in all the usual tracks – though its of course the visual element that makes their gigs so lively. they kinda disappeared in 2003, with malcolm putting together two separate solo approaches, but resurfaced in mid 2004 with new drummer Chris O’Connor (formerly a pivotal figure of the wellington avant-garde and jazz scenes) whom Malcolm played with during a European excursion.